State AG argues for Yorktown clerk's ouster

YORKTOWN, Ind. – Yorktown Clerk-Treasurer Beth Neff’s “pervasive and continued neglect of her duties as the financial manager of Yorktown” warrants her removal from office, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill contends.

Last summer, Delaware Circuit Court 1 Judge Marianne Vorhees – after presiding over a hearing on a complaint filed by Delaware County Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold accusing Neff of “misfeasance and nonfeasance" – ruled Neff would remain in office.

Hill’s office later announced they would appeal that ruling, to the Indiana Court of Appeals. Hill in recent days submitted a 19-page legal brief on the case.

“It is not sufficient for the hyphenated duality of clerk-treasurer that an office-holder may simply neglect her role of treasurer but be immune from removal as long as she performs some duties as clerk,” Hill wrote.

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill(Photo: The Indianapolis Star)

“The failure to perform in this capacity not only cost Yorktown tens of thousands of dollars to remedy, it also made it impossible to know whether Yorktown was lawfully and assessing tax liabilities...”

During last July’s hearing, Arnold said Neff’s office had “failed to reconcile books on a monthly basis for 48 months.”

An employee of an accounting firm hired by the town said records reflected more than $3 million in posting errors in recent years.

Neff’s attorney, Jeffrey Heinzmann, said his client was being criticized for mistakes, not for refusing to do her job.

In her ruling, Vorhees said the decision on whether Neff – Yorktown’s clerk-treasurer since 2007 – remains in office “should belong to the voters in the town of Yorktown.”

Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.